ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the different roles played by Russia or China in the global dimension have structured their mutual relationship. It is also interested in the extent to which this relationship has been influenced by Moscow's and Beijing's post-crisis global profiles. In the period preceding the global recession, Russia and China played different roles in the international order. Russia stood out as the non-Western voice in the international security realm, while China, largely unwittingly, played an increasingly significant role in global economic governance. Prior to the global economic crisis, the informal division of labour between Russia and China was especially visible in international security, with Russia repeatedly claiming that this particular area was a cornerstone of its global and regional responsibility. In terms of Russia-China relations in the global dimension, China's growing engagement in crisis management and multilateral security co-operation has been gradually removing one of the last asymmetries remaining between Russia and China since the Cold War period.
